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Is Bitcoin mining a waste of resources? Regarding this question, there is no doubt that the answer is definitely polarized. Bitcoin opponents accuse mining of using up a lot of resources to do meaningless coin tossing, while supporters give the example of gold mining. A lot of resources are wasted doing meaningless digging.

Supporters believe that Bitcoin mining is a huge waste of social resources, not just electricity. There are also manpower, human energy, intelligence, talents, so many high-specification graphics cards and the resources consumed in manufacturing these graphics cards. They could have been used in more useful places for society, but now they are wasted here on something as purely useless as Bitcoin. On useless counterfeit currency. The way to obtain Bitcoin is a crime against human society.

Opponents believe that considering the significance of mining and coinage, the energy consumed by mining is not considered a waste.

First of all, the electricity currently consumed by mining accounts for only 1% of China's electricity production, which is less than half of the electricity consumed by data centers across the country.

The purpose of mining is not to waste energy, but to make the coinage industry break away from power and become a real industrial category. It is to consume half of the total human ability, so that humans have the ability to operate society with only half of their ability. The upper limit of the scale of mining and coinage is the sum of the scale of all other industries, so it is not a waste of resources.

The author believes that Bitcoin mining is not a waste of resources. Why?

Before that, let’s take a look at some of the wasteful behaviors that are considered by the public:

1. When driving to a certain place, instead of taking the shortest route, you took a long detour. The symbolic significance of waste in this example is a failure in the management and allocation of resources.

2. When I went to the canteen to get food, I obviously only had two taels of food, but I ordered three taels of rice. If anyone says this is not a waste, please go out and turn right, we can't communicate.

3. Faucets, lights, and heaters are turned on, and some cities even light up some roads with little traffic at night for the sake of dignity. The symbolic meaning of waste in this example is that when an activity itself is meaningless, performing this activity is a waste. Excluding venting emotions or other special circumstances, the act of turning on the tap without turning it off will not produce any value, so it is undoubtedly a waste.

4. No one would think that it was a waste to use incandescent bulbs for household lighting during Edison's time, but many people think that it is a waste to still use incandescent bulbs for household lighting now. The significance of this example to represent waste is that to determine whether an activity is wasteful, one needs to consider the limitations of technical capabilities. Until stronger and more efficient technologies (such as cold light lamps) appear, it cannot be said that old technologies (such as incandescent lamps) are wasteful.

Let’s go back to Bitcoin mining.

1. First of all, is the behavior of Bitcoin mining meaningful? I am afraid this is the key point of dispute between the pros and cons.

People who have a negative attitude towards Bitcoin mining believe that Bitcoin has no actual value, so it is a waste; those who support it believe that Bitcoin has actual value, so it is not a waste.

We can imagine: a password string composed of letters and numbers has no value in itself, but if a certain bank appears and maps this alphanumeric password string to an item in a drawer in a certain warehouse of the bank, then , this password string has value.

Bitcoin can be understood as an alphanumeric password string. However, no bank currently uses Bitcoin to correspond to items in a certain drawer of a certain warehouse, and no government clearly stipulates the applicable scenarios of Bitcoin. Private Bitcoin transactions are more like trading some kind of impossible transaction. Artwork to be admired. So I think the actual value of Bitcoin at this stage is questionable, but this does not mean that Bitcoin will have no value in the future.

Bitcoin mining can basically be compared to investing in treasury bonds or pre-purchasing iPhoneX. It is a trade of the present for the future. There is only a difference in risk, but no essential difference. Therefore, Bitcoin mining should be a meaningful and reasonable behavior.

2. Considering the existing technical capabilities, does Bitcoin mining consume more resources than the amount of resources required to complete it? It seems not. But if you are still using a graphics card to mine, it is suspected of being a waste;

3. Are there any errors in the management and allocation of resources in Bitcoin mining?

Regarding this issue, as a person who has never mined, I cannot determine whether there is a mistake. However, even assuming that there are errors in resource management and allocation in Bitcoin mining, it can be corrected without affecting the core content of this topic.

But a new question also arises here, that is, from the overall perspective of human social activities, is investing resources in Bitcoin mining itself a mismanagement and allocation of resources?

This reminds me of the fact that some civilian companies are still building airplanes and submarines, but the author believes that one thing that is different from civilian science and technology building aircraft is that the blockchain technology is still generally considered a new technology in the scientific and technological circles. , so Bitcoin mining has certain scientific research and exploration attributes. As for scientific research and exploration, as long as it follows certain scientific principles and methods, it obviously cannot be called waste.